The Lipscomb Bisons will start the 2009-2010 regular season at a whirlwind pace.

Saturday night they open at home at Allen Arena against Elon at 7. That leaves them with one day of preparation before taking on Vanderbilt down the road at Memorial Gym Monday night at 7.

“I don’t like having just one day of preparation to play Vanderbilt,” said Bisons coach Scott Sanderson. “Our whole focus has been on Elon. We haven’t talked about Vanderbilt.”

Another thing that Sanderson doesn’t like is not having someone established at the point guard position. Redshirt freshman Jason Arnett, senior transfer Johnny Lee and freshman Zach Brown are all in the mix.

“That is still a work in progress,” said Sanderson. “It will be a work in progress until somebody plays that position with some consistency.

“We are a little bit on edge with that position unsettled. We have two or three options there, but they are all different. I wish someone would step up and take the lead.”

The Bisons are 8-0 in home openers in Allen Arena. Elon beat the Bisons 79-75 in overtime last season at Elon.

“We need to win our home games,” said Sanderson. “We want to have a quick start.”

Sanderson is certain of at least three starters. Junior Josh Slater will start at the No. 2 guard. Junior Brandon Brown will start at one forward spot. Junior Adnan Hodzic will be in the post. Either junior Michael Teller or sophomore Brian Wright will get the starting nod at the other forward spot.

Matt Matheny is making his debut as the head coach for Elon. They return eight players from last season and are the preseason pick to finish fifth in the Southern Conference Northern Division.

“It will be very similar to playing an Atlantic Sun team,” said Sanderson. “They are going to try to play a little bit faster. They shoot a lot of threes too.

“There will be a lot of possessions during the game. We will have to defend their 3-point shooting.”

The Bisons also would like to see a lot of possessions in the game, as long as they result in points.

“Hopefully, we can continue to build defensively,” said Sanderson. “We would like to see a lot of possessions over the course of the game as well in order to utilize our depth and our speed as far as getting the ball down the floor. We are also trying to play faster.”